The DfE website had already broken with recent tradition by accepting ITT applications, prior to announcing ITT funding updates for the next academic year; with some beginning to speculate that any changes to funding might be delayed to the end of October.

Then, just as we began our webinar, with a panel that included e-Qualitas’ ITT Director Tracey Maloney, the announcement came – taking our webinar’s panel by surprise (including me!).

Having taken the time to reflect on the latest updates, the only negative impact from the announcement is to Secondary English ITT, which previously had access to a £1,000 DfE salary grant. This is disappointing, though it is worth noting that e-Qualitas’ 2024/25 English cohort is almost 50% larger than the previous year’s (for which schools had access to a £5,000 salary grant).

It is important to note that the Teaching Apprenticeship levy will continue to serve as a considerable resource, which primary and secondary schools can utilise to cover fees for trainee teachers in their employment.

I include key information from the DfE’s announcement below:

• Schools that enrol trainee teachers for the Teaching Apprenticeship will be able to access grant funding equivalent to the bursary in chemistry, mathematics and physics (£29,000)
• The Teaching Apprenticeship route allows schools to utilize the apprenticeship levy to cover teacher training fees (£9,000)
• The DfE will be offering grant funding of £29,000 in chemistry, mathematics, and physics for apprentice trainees.
• The DfE are also offering grant funding of £17,000 for biology and geography apprentice trainees
• For school direct (salaried), the grant funding available to schools is £29,000 in chemistry, mathematics, and physics, £26,000 for biology and geography, with £5,000 available for English
• The tax-free bursaries for school direct (tuition fee-based) paid to trainees are £29,000 for chemistry, mathematics, and physics and £26,000 for biology and geography with a £5,000 tax-free bursary for English available to trainees.
• Trainee scholarships of £31,000 tax-free will be offered to trainees, in partnership with professional bodies, for chemistry, mathematics, and physics

You can read full details of the DfE’s announcement via their website here. 

With our ITT courses now published on the DfE Apply website (linked here), I encourage school leaders to consider how they can utilize funding to add new teachers to their team. The government has set a target of recruiting 6,500 new teachers. Here is where that process begins.

More info:

• Teaching Apprenticeship Programme
• School Direct Funding
• DfE Teacher Training vacancies